The Federal Reserve’s (Fed) final policy meeting of 2019 starts today and will conclude tomorrow with the release of the Fed’s policy statement, updated economic projections, and a press conference by Fed Chair Jerome Powell. After lowering its main policy rate at each of its last three meetings, the Fed is widely expected to pause as it gauges the impact of the recent cuts and the state of the economy.

It was a little less than a year ago, on December 19, 2018, that the Fed announced the fourth rate hike of 2018 and the ninth of the current expansion. Markets roundly jeered the move. The S&P 500 Index, already do

U.S. economic growth has slowed in 2019. However, the economy is still growing, and we believe it will continue growing through 2020. As we highlighted in our Outlook 2020: Bringing Markets Into Focus, we’re projecting real GDP growth of 1.75% in 2020, slightly below average for this economic expansion. 

The Year in Review

The U.S. economy has made it out of a volatile year relatively unscathed, based on data we’ve seen. Gross domestic product (GDP) grew an average of 2.4% in the first three quarters of 2019, higher than the 2.3% average quarterly growth in this 10-year economic expansion [Figure 2]. Output

The U.S. job market bounced back in November.

Nonfarm payrolls increased 266,000 last month, a 10-month high and well above consensus estimates for a 180,000 gain. September and October payrolls were also revised up by 41,000. Manufacturing payrolls climbed by 54,000 in November, but about 40,000 of that rise reflected workers returning from the General Motors strike.

Job creation has slowed somewhat this year as the economic expansion has matured. However, as shown in the LPL Chart of the Day, the pace of hiring is still noticeably above the expansion average, an impressive feat in the cycle’s 11th year.

&n

It has been a banner year for global equities, thanks to the S&P 500 Index’s 24.1% gain year to date. Developed market stocks have also climbed in 2019, but they haven’t shined as brightly as their U.S. counterparts—a consistent theme over the past several years.

Underperformance by international stocks has been persistent in this bull market. As shown in the LPL Research Chart of the Day, the MSCI EAFE Index of developed market stocks has underperformed the S&P 500 in 8 of the last 10 years, including 2019 to date.The impact over the entire period: a total return of 241% for the S&P 500 versus a 72%